Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

Back when I taught elementary school full time, I found I could accomplish a lot more on a snow day than I could on a Saturday. I had the same number of hours, but for some reason I could do more housework and grade more papers, not to mention spend more quality time with the kids when I had an unexpected day off. I suppose part of that was because on Saturdays, unless I needed to be somewhere, I would sleep in, so my day started later. On a snow day, I was usually up early to watch the news and look for my school's name scrolling across the screen. When it appeared I would be too excited to go back to sleep, so I'd start a project right away.

Now that I'm retired, my days are much less structured. I take care of my grandkids on Mondays, so on that day I get up early. I sew with my church's quilt guild on Tuesdays. On Monday nights I go to rehearsals for a community band, and on Wednesday nights I rehearse with a community orchestra. That's it for weekly commitments. I belong to two writing groups and a scrapbooking group that meet monthly. And I help my eighty-year-old mother get to her doctor appointments and other places. On paper it sounds like I'm busy, but I really have a lot of unstructured time—and that often translates into wasted time.

I tried to combat that wastefulness by writing a to-do list each morning as part of my 750 Words challenge. That works pretty well when I actually write the list early enough in the day that I can finish my writing (or at least get to a good stopping point) and then work on my other chores. But I often get caught up in the "other stuff" – social media, research, and the endless marketing. So I have to have a plan, and limit the time I spend on each task.

This week, the snowstorm and bone-chilling temps in Michigan caused cancellations for several of my weekly commitments. So I had two days during which I stayed inside and tried to get things done. I got up, wrote out the things I wanted to get done, and gave myself a time frame for getting each item done.

How did it work? Well, during my two days of being snowbound I made two more quilt tops, several holiday napkins that I'll put away to give as gifts next year, edited a few chapters in my work-in-progress (wip), did my homework for a class Japanese language class I'm taking, and finished reading a book. This is all in addition to keeping up with correspondence and marketing opportunities.

Having a plan usually helps me get things done. Having a schedule helps even more. And sticking to the schedule makes things happen. Now that most of the snow has been shoveled away and the temps are survivable I'm back to my usual hectic schedule. There's no way to know when I'll have another "free" day. But when I do, I'll have my paper and pencil out to list what I have to get done, prioritize, and cross things off as they're finished!

Maybe.

Crafting goal: Yes, I know the quilt tops look really similar to the ones I made last week – but I had a LOT of squares! They will go to church on the 21st, and the Christmas napkins will be put away for next winter. I like to have last-minute gifts handy.

Reading goal: I finished reading Curing the Uncommon Man-Cold by JL Salter. It's hilarious! I think most people would love it. Next up, a new romantic suspense by Diane Burton, One Red Shoe. Diane is a fellow member of the Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America and I'm always eager to read books by people I know. And Diane will be here on Saturday, so I'm hoping I'll have a lot of it read by then!

Happy New Year!

Image credit: sellingpix / 123RF Stock Photo

I haven't blogged in almost three weeks. Part of me is disappointed in myself - I haven't been absent this long since I started Creative Hodgepodge. But apparently I needed this time to recharge. It's been a very, very busy writing year for me, and while I'm excited about that, I am also ready for some changes. Some of them are necessary for my health, and some are for my own need to set goals so that I can feel like I've accomplished something. It's kind of like my need to write out a "to do" list every morning so that I can cross things off and see what I've done by the end of the day.

So here are my writing goals for 2013:

1. Complete at least two more books for the Stitching Post Quilting Guild series

2. Complete the sequel to Samurai's Garden

3. Write another Christmas story

Here are my crafting goals for 2013:

1. Complete at least two quilt tops a month for the Helping Hands Quilt group

2. Organize scrapbooking supplies

3. Organize and use up enough crafting supplies so that I can store my "stuff" in one room of the house

Now comes the hard part: how can I make all this happen?

Part of my problem is that I waste a lot of time online. Between my laptop, my phone, and my ipad, I'm "hooked up" for a large part of each day. It's great for looking things up and keeping up on the news from my kids and grandkids and friends - but it's also a huge time drain. So I need to take a tip from Margaret Yang - when I start in on social media, I need to set a timer. When the timer goes off, the internet turns off too. I love to play online Boggle and Words with Friends, and Sudoku is addicting. But I don't NEED to play each one twenty times a day. So that has to be cut back.

Work also tends to take up a lot of my energy, if not my time. Fortunately, things get slower in retail during the first part of the year so I'm hoping my hours at the bakery will decrease. And this semester I'm scheduled to teach only one section of my course instead of two, so that will help. Fewer papers to grade, and four hours a week less at school. More time to write. I've also got to limit my "down" time. When I get home from work I tend to flop down in a chair and not get up until it's time to go to bed. I need to stop pampering myself like that. Maybe the timer thing will work there, too. Get home from work, jump in the shower to loosen up the muscles, and maybe allow myself an hour to catch up on correspondence. Then I need to get up off my duff and get something done - like laundry, or crafting.

This is a big change for me. Very optimistic goals. It's going to take a whole new mind set. I really don't think I'm lazy, but I do tend to waste a lot of time. So the deal is I need to cut down on the unproductive time. Maybe then my kids will stop threatening to put me on the Hoarders show on television.

So what have you got planned for this year?